Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-04-16
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
New and Practical Farm Hints--T b Loss
Of Fertility by Cropping Farm
Lands.
How Good Butter is Made in New
Hampshire.
gu!tivating Fruit Trees Miscellaneous
Notes.
The loss Of fertility in the soil dc

Inc loss o. IcrIllllJ Ill inc OIL uc-
ponds entirely upon the kind of crop
n growing thereon, says the Philadelphia
Record, and the soil is improved or
impoverished in y certain period of
time corresponding with the available
and inert matter it contains and the
growth OF the plants which remove the
fertilizing materials. Some crops en-
rich the soil in one respect and inn
poverish it ia another by utilizing e
greater portion of some kinds OF plant
food while rejecting others, thus caus-
ing a gradual accumulation OF some
particular substance which is not re-
auired for growth. This is shown by
the growth Of clover, which adds nitro
gen 20 the soil, though removing other
clements. The loss by soils does not
depend upon the amount of plant food
= removed, but upon the value thereof,
/. and the loss dees not really occur by
growing the crop upon the land, but IN
renewing it from the farm to the mar
lets. When milk is produced the
fertilizing element is in the skim-milk,
and not in the cream, and when the
manure is scattered on the land and the
milk fed TO calves and pigs the loss is
small. as butter is really produced
from the air, through the crop. Butter
being composed mostly of carbon,
which is derived from the ri: by plants
in the form of carbonic acid gas, does
not remove any OF the substances exist
inc in the soil. 1t is estimated that
500 pounds of butter, wher sold of
the farm, carries away only 80 cents
worth of plant food, and the carcass
of an OK or horse 50 worth of plant
food, while a crop of wheat, valued at
5000, causes u loss of nearly 500
worth of plant food. If all the crops
BE- fed TO stock on the farm and the
manure carefully saved, the loss is III
proportion to the amount and kind of
material sold, which loss may be modi-
fed according to the form into which
the salablc articlc has been changed.
Cheese and milk take away the most
valuable elements, vet these articles DO
not command rs high prices in the
market AZ butter, which costs very
little in the shape of fertilizers. If land
be cropped. the kind Of fertilizers to
be applied should correspond as near
lv as possible to that which is sold
rather than To that which is produced
in order TO avoid loss OF fertility. When
crops are sold the nitrogen, phosphoric
acid, potash and lime are removed, but
when the sales are made in the shape
of animals the potash remains mostly
in the manure. Nitrogen and the phos-
pilates are essential under All systems,
and every pound of fertilizer applied is
simply storing it in the soil to be con-
verted into some other form best
adapted fox market, whether animal or
vegetable.
HOW GOOD GUTTER Is MADE.
Judge Nj. II. Gray, OF Rycgate, n.
H., who took second prize offered by
the Manchester Mirror for best butter
shown at the Vermont dairy meeting
at St. Johnsbury. gave his methods OF
feeding and butter making as follows;
His COWS are chiefly thoroughbred Jer-
scys. though he has n few high grades.
The winter feed is coarse fodder, such
as corn stalks, wheat, rye, oat, or bar
ley hay. fed night and morning, with
ordinary English may al moor The
coarse fodder is cut and steamed about
two hours in the morning. The grain
is equal weights Of corn and cob meal
and bran, -four quarts at a meal morn
inc and night. Waters after feeding in
morning and before feeding at night.
From eighteen to twenty-five COWS are
kept. The MIX is set in large open
mpans, usually ~thirty-six hours, and at a
Temperature of GO to 20 degrees.
Churning is done from two to four
times per week. in "a dash .churn run
by horse power. This winter the cream
is churncd at 81 degrees. and the but
ter comes in good condition to handle.
just before the butter is ready to sepa-
rate the horse IS stopped &nd the
ohurning finished by hand. When
finished the butter is rinsed off in clear
water, and a half ounce Of salt per
pound sprinkled over it and worked in.
While the butter is being %comEactcd
by = lever hand worker a cloth Is used
for absorbing the surplus moisture
The churning occupies from fifteen
minutes to a half hour. If the cream
is too thick for proper churning it is
thinned with water. He made 5000
pounds tie past year.